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18 September 2026 · 11 min read

Winter golf training plan: 16 weeks from November to Good Friday, with one measurement a week

A resolution has no date. A plan has one. Here is a winter in 16 training weeks from 2 November to Good Friday 2027: each with one hour in the bay and one number you write down, plus putting at home and mobility. With the Swiss holidays in the calendar, the Combine as the yardstick and the bill per week.

Winter golf training plan: 16 weeks from November to Good Friday, with one measurement a week — post image

A winter golf training plan needs a date, or it stays a resolution. Here is one with dates: 16 training weeks from 2 November 2026 to Good Friday, 26 March 2027. Every week has one hour in the bay and one number you write down. Add putting at home and ten minutes of mobility. This is a plan, not the plan. What should stay is the measurement. Without it you will not know in March whether the winter did anything.

Why a winter golf training plan needs a date

In November most courses on the Swiss plateau close; what stays open is in Golf in winter in Switzerland. The Christmas holidays differ by canton: in Lucerne from 19 December to 3 January, in Aargau from 21 to 31 December, in Bern from 25 December to 10 January (schulferien.org). The 2027 sports holidays fall between 30 January and 5 March depending on the canton (schulferien.org). At the end stands Good Friday, 26 March 2027, with Easter Monday on 29 March (feiertage-ch.ch): the target for the first round outside. In between lie 21 weeks. Two I count for the Christmas holidays, two for the sports holidays, one is a reserve, because one week always drops out. That leaves 16.

The number per week is the core. The simulator measures every week under the same conditions: no wind, no slope. If you write one number down every week, in March you have 16 values and no opinion. Always measure on the same system: 83 of the 126 venues in the directory name TrackMan, and that is also where the Combine runs, which appears three times in this plan (golfsimulators.ch). Bring your own clubs; with rental clubs you measure something different in March than you did in November.

The plan at a glance

Sixteen weeks, one measurement a week. The table is the whole plan; what exactly to do in each week follows below.

WeekFromWhat you measure
12 Novemberclub speed, ten drives
29 Novemberdistances, median carry per club
316 Novemberwedges at 40, 60 and 80 metres
423 Novemberthe first Combine
530 November20 balls with the 7-iron, contact
67 Decemberthe same 20 balls, smash factor
714 December30 balls at your weakest distance
84 Januarythe second Combine
911 Januarythe short game
1018 Januarythe short game
1125 Januarythe gaps in your distance table
121 Februarypractising pressure, one round
1322 Februarypractising pressure, one round
141 Marchthe third Combine
158 Marchthe driver, ten shots
1615 March18 holes in the bay, honestly set up

One evening a week is enough, and the dates are worked out for a winter that starts on 2 November and ends at Easter. If a week falls away, everything moves by a week, not the content.

November: taking stock, club speed and distances

  • Week 1, from 2 November: club speed. Ten drives, the average counts, not the best shot. TrackMan gives 94 mph for the average male golfer with a handicap of 14.5, 79 mph for a woman with a handicap of 15 and 115 mph for the PGA Tour (TrackMan). How to measure it is in Club speed.
  • Week 2, from 9 November: the distances. Ten balls per club, the median carry on a card. That is your own table; how to read it is in Club distances.
  • Week 3, from 16 November: the wedges. Ten balls each to 40, 60 and 80 metres, and you note the average distance to the pin per target. These three numbers become the assignment in January.
  • Week 4, from 23 November: the first Combine. 60 shots, six each to nine targets between 60 and 180 yards plus six drives, around 35 minutes (TrackMan brochure). Book an hour. Remember not the overall score but the weakest distance. How the test works is in The TrackMan Combine test explained.

December: contact and direction, one number a week

Three hours remain before the Christmas holidays, and they belong to the strike. Week 5, from 30 November: 20 balls with the 7 iron, and you count how many land within ten metres left and right of the target line. Week 6, from 7 December: the same 20 balls, and you note the smash factor; the normal range is in Understanding launch-monitor numbers. Week 7, from 14 December: 30 balls to the weakest distance from the Combine, and you note the average distance to the pin. Three weeks, three numbers, each on one line.

In the Christmas holidays you play, you do not train. Up to four people usually share a bay, and the hour costs between CHF 25 and 99 at 80 of the 110 indoor venues, a median of CHF 50, per bay (golfsimulators.ch). For four that is an evening for CHF 12.50 a head. Opening hours often change over the holidays; Open now shows who is open right now.

January: the Combine and the short game

Week 8, from 4 January: the second Combine. Put the report next to November's, per distance and not as an overall score. In the brochure TrackMan prints two comparison columns: the PGA Tour at 81.7 points and players with a handicap of 18 at 46.7; at 100 yards the Tour lands an average of 6.4 yards from the pin, handicap 18 lands 16.2 yards away (TrackMan brochure). Week 9, from 11 January, and week 10, from 18 January, belong to the short game: ten balls each to 40, 60, 80 and 100 metres, the average distance to the pin, next to week 3. Week 11, from 25 January: the gaps in your table, where two clubs fly the same distance.

What the bay cannot do is putting. The software putts for you; the regulation of the Swiss Golf Indoor Championship shows how: one putt inside three metres, two inside 20 metres, three beyond that, automatically (Swiss Golf). On the course, not every three-metre putt drops. That is why the putting mat is part of the plan from January on, three times a week for ten minutes, with a rate you count; the drills are in Practising putting at home. Add ten minutes of mobility on the days in between; which exercises prepare your back for the first round is in Golf and your back.

February: practising under pressure, playing rounds

February holds the sports holidays, one or two weeks depending on the canton. That leaves two hours, week 12 from 1 February and week 13 from 22 February, depending on when your canton goes skiing. Both belong to pressure, the part of mental training you can measure. A pressure game is a drill with a consequence: ten balls to 100 yards, and every ball that lands further from the pin than your Combine average sets the counter back to zero. Or nine holes against a score you wrote down beforehand, with gimmes off and wind on. Why that makes the round more honest is in Why you are five shots better in the simulator.

Real pressure comes with a leaderboard. Swiss Golf runs the Swiss Golf Indoor Championship with TrackMan Switzerland, on any TrackMan simulator in Switzerland. The fourth edition ran from 10 December 2025 to 31 March 2026: two rounds of stroke play over 18 holes, on Crans-sur-Sierre and Holzhäusern, an entry fee of CHF 20, open to everyone with a Swiss Golf Card, no handicap limit, scored gross, and the best round per course counts (regulation 2025/26). Whether there is a 2026/27 edition and when it runs will be on swissgolf.ch; check that before you fix the February weeks.

March: the last four weeks to Good Friday

Week 14, from 1 March: the third Combine, the number that says what the winter did, per distance, next to the reports from November and January. Week 15, from 8 March: the driver, ten shots, the average next to the one from week 1. TrackMan reckons up to three yards more per mph (TrackMan). Week 16, from 15 March: 18 holes in the bay with the settings closest to the course you will play at Easter: gimmes off, wind on, back tees, score written down. The week from 22 March is the reserve. If nothing has dropped out, spend it on a driving range outdoors; 16 with ball-flight tracking are in the directory. Then the first round outside is not also the first shot outside.

The first round on Good Friday will be worse than the one from 15 March in the bay. Expect it. If the software putts for you, it gives you every putt under three metres, as the regulation of the Indoor Championship sets it for every participant (Swiss Golf). On the course you have to hole them yourself. Every shot came off a flat mat in a heated room. What each of those costs is in Why you are five shots better in the simulator. Do not judge the winter by this round but by the 16 lines in your notebook. If those are better than in November, the plan worked. The score follows.

More on this: Golf fitness: what training brings and Golf swing for beginners, Practising golf properly.

What the plan costs: the bill per week

16 hours in the bay. 80 of the 110 indoor venues publish an hourly rate: between CHF 25 and 99, a median of CHF 50, per bay (golfsimulators.ch). At the median the winter costs CHF 800, with the cheapest published hour CHF 400, with the most expensive CHF 1'584. The measuring weeks you need to yourself; the rounds you share. The Combine needs a TrackMan bay, the championship costs CHF 20 on top. One hour with a pro who reads the November numbers changes the plan more than any further hour alone; 95 venues offer coaching (golfsimulators.ch). What the hour costs in your canton is in Golf simulator prices.

If you are just starting, the same calendar applies with other numbers. Leave out club speed and count contact in November instead: how many of 20 balls with the 7 iron fly rather than roll. The first Combine can wait until January. The theory for the Platzreife fits into the Christmas holidays; what a venue needs for a beginner is in the guide Golf simulators for beginners.

The next step is a booking, not a resolution: one hour in the week of 2 November, in a bay that shows club data, with your own clubs and a notebook. The venues are in the list of all venues; what else a training hour in the simulator can do is in the guide Indoor golf training. The dates in this plan are for the winter of 2026/27 and will be updated next autumn. Take your phone: where it belongs and what you see in the picture is in Filming your own swing.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I train in a golf simulator in winter?

This plan reckons with one hour a week in the bay, 16 weeks between 2 November 2026 and Good Friday, 26 March 2027, plus ten minutes of putting at home three times a week. More important than the frequency is the number you write down every week. At the median of CHF 50 an hour the winter costs CHF 800.

How often do I take the TrackMan Combine in winter?

Three times: in November to take stock, in January and in March. The test has 60 shots, six each to nine targets between 60 and 180 yards plus six drives, and takes around 35 minutes. The PGA Tour average is 81.7 points, the average of players with a handicap of 18 is 46.7.

Can I practise putting in a golf simulator too?

Hardly. Most bays putt automatically or give you the short putt; in the Swiss Golf Indoor Championship one putt counts inside three metres and two putts inside 20 metres, automatically. In winter you practise putting on a mat at home, with a rate you count.

How long does a winter training plan take?

Sixteen weeks, from the start of November to Easter, with one evening a week. That is around twenty hours at a median CHF 50 an hour for the bay, divided by however many people come along.

What if I miss a week?

Do not reshuffle, just shift. The plan builds on itself: first the baseline, then contact, then the short game, then pressure and rounds. A missed week is caught up rather than skipped, otherwise the next Combine has nothing to compare against.

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